Silja: Franz Josef Glacier - Fox Glacier – Milford Sound – The Catlins

 We drove towards the Southern Alps and the views became more and more stunning. We arrived in Franz Josef, a buzzing little town where you can book helicopter flights and glacier tours everywhere. The other places are either motels or a cafés.

It was possible to drive relatively close to the glacier, so it took about half an hour to walk the path with maaany other pilgrims towards the receeding glacier. Since we were not allowed to get close, the experience did not stand out from other (Norwegian) glaciers we have seen.

The view of Fox Glacier, which we visited later the same day was better and Lisa and Axel, who were a bit ahead of us, watched a huge ice block break off. Lea, Niklas and I just heard the thundering noise. We had fallen behind because Lea had stumbled over a rock and we had to wash her bleeding knee in the nearby creek. On the way back Niklas ran and tripped over the same rock and we had to wash his bleeding knee in the nearby creek.

The maze at "Puzzling World"

Our southward journey from then on was dominated by one thing – sandflies! They were everywhere and in incredible numbers. It is a little fly with a  bite that is extremely itchy for days.

They do not really seem repelled by our insect repellant, so we bought the local stuff which turns out to be more than ten times as poisonous and now I am afraid that it will kill me before it kills them (- and it will definetely not go on the kids, who run around in long clothes and buffs in warm weather...) We all run, actually, because it is the only way to get rid of them. We ran to viewpoints like «Knight's Point» and «Ships Creek», where we saw seals and we ran to «Blue Pools» and «Fantail Falls» who have such descriptive names that I need not say more.

When we arrived in Wanaka the worst was over and we had a great day at «Puzzling World», an amusement park with a huge maze outside and rooms full of optical illusions inside. Great fun for all of us! Team «Niklas and Silja» just about beat team «Axel, Lisa and Lea» in the maze, which took about an hour to complete.

In Queenstown we realized for the first time, that «the Kiwis» were on holiday, too. The place was absolutely packed! This is where you go when you want to bungyjump, paraglide, kayak, mountain bike...you name it! Helicopters were lifting off constantly, hovering over speedboats on the lake.  With three kids and being almost double the average age, we stuck out like sore thumbs.

Te Anau, which is even closer to Milford Sound and offers the same combination of a big lake with beaches and nearby mountains had a much more relaxed feel to it. Lovely place! From there it is a 120 km drive to Milford Sound, which tour-operators do in a day. It took us two days with New Year's Eve spent right by a river in one of the many campgrounds run by the DOC (Department of Conservation). I am so glad we took that rather long journey into Fiordland and I have a feeling that we were very lucky with the weather.

We continued southward and spent a nice day in Invercargill. Their tourist information is a gallery and a museum at the same time, situated in Queens Park, where they have a playground, a small zoo and gardens. We did not get much further that day and stayed on a campsite at a beach near Fortrose together with kite surfers and other travellers from around the world and in the evening we all gathered around a campfire on the beach and exchanged experiences and tips.

The next day in the Catlins was incredible: At Waipapa Point we saw a sea lion on the beach and found wonderful little fossils of snails. Only a few kilometers further, in Curio Bay, we got to see a petrified forest and yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest penguins in the world! They got out of the ocean and headed for their nests that were hidden in bushes, passing right in front of us! When we got to the next beach, Porpoise Bay, we saw numerous Hector dolphins (also rare!) playing in the waves and checking out people swimming in the water. Sometimes they even jumped, which Axel managed to get a photo of. Lisa, who has a thing for dolphins and whales, was over the moon – and so was I!